The Spartanettes then scored twice in the top of the eighth and held on for a 7-6 win over the Lady Crusaders in a Lackawanna League Division II first-place showdown on a sunny and breezy Monday afternoon at Msgr. Crotti Field at St. Anthony\u2019s Memorial Playground<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s about. These games for maybe the last 10 years have been similar to this,\u201d Mid Valley coach Michael Piercy said. \u201cBack and forth, extra innings. I\u2019m just super proud of their effort. We have a lot of youth out there and we made a lot of mistakes \u2014 on the bases, on defense. But we didn\u2019t hang our heads. We stayed positive and fought for the full eight innings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trailing, 4-3, in the bottom of the sixth inning, McKinley Griffiths led off with a single for Holy Cross (7-2 overall, 4-1 league), then stole second. Maya DeSantis was hit by a pitch. One out later, Kiera Bauman hit a ground ball that was misplayed for an error, allowing Griffiths to score the tying run. Lila Kolcharno, who had three hits, hit her second double into the left-field corner to score DeSantis and put the Lady Crusaders on top, 5-4.<\/p>\n
But Mid Valley (5-0, 10-1) answered in the top of seventh. Abigail Mackey led off with a single and advanced to second on a groundout. Holy Cross pitcher Ava Schmidt retired the next batter on a groundout. But Davey ripped a double to left-center field to score Mackey and tie the game, 5-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to not let my team down and focus,\u201d Davey said. \u201cWhen I got that first strike, I was like, OK, I\u2019m ready, I\u2019m set. When I hit the second ball, I was so happy we scored the run and I didn\u2019t let my team down. That kept us going.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept fighting, kept our heads up. We made mistakes, but we got right back together. We believed in each other and helped each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mid Valley pitcher Ava Hazelton retired Holy Cross in order in the bottom of the seventh and the game headed to extra innings. In the top of the eighth, with one out, Natalie Hricenak doubled to center field. With two outs, Julie Prisco hit a fly ball that was dropped for an error, allowing pinch-runner Amelia Mackey to score the go-ahead run. Amelia Mackey then stole third and when the throw got away, she got up and scored to make it 7-5.<\/p>\n
That insurance run was important because, with one out in the bottom of the eighth, Emily Fitzpatrick homered to left-center to bring Holy Cross within 7-6. The Lady Crusaders put the tying run on base with two outs, but Hazelton got the final out and Mid Valley held on for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk all the time with our players about being resilient and playing the next pitch,\u201d Holy Cross coach Joe Ross said. \u201cThroughout the course of the game, no matter what happened, we kept playing and fighting until the last out. I\u2019m really proud of my players for doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to lose a game. But what this is is a learning experience and they can start to understand how good we can potentially be.\u201d<\/p>\n
One-out singles by Kolcharno and Jules Galella and two-out walks to Claire Helring and Griffiths gave Holy Cross a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.<\/p>\n
However, three errors and an RBI double by Parker Bennett produced four runs in the top of the third for Mid Valley and gave it a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Holy Cross committed seven errors. Six of Mid Valley\u2019s runs were unearned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mindset we try to cultivate here is to just keep playing, no matter what,\u201d Ross said. \u201cMistakes are going to happen, you just have to play through them. I think we were an example of that today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consecutive doubles by Kolcharno and Galella leading off the bottom of the third cut the Lady Crusaders\u2019 deficit to 4-2. Then in the bottom of the fifth, Schmidt singled on a wind-aided infield popup and Kolcharno walked. They advanced to third and second, respectively, when Galella flew out to the warning track in left. Peyton Graboske then plated Schmidt with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-3 Mid Valley.<\/p>\n
Schmidt walked two and struck out 11 in eight innings for Holy Cross.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a next level-type pitcher who will keep us in the game with anybody,\u201d Ross said. \u201cYou saw her resiliency, her grit and determination and how hard she plays. She threw a phenomenal game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hazelton walked four and fanned 12 in her eight innings for Mid Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cAva is an absolute dog,\u201d Piercy said. \u201cShe\u2019s sick, she had a sinus infection going on, but she would not miss this game or miss school for the world. She\u2019s just such a tough kid and I know as long as she\u2019s out there, we\u2019re going to be competitive in any game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams are scheduled to meet again May 8 at Mid Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them to enjoy this one, but you are not league champs,\u201d Piercy said. \u201cCelebrate tonight, but it\u2019s just a good win early in the season. We have to keep this intensity and focus and we have to get better as the season goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elk Lake 17, Susquehanna 2 (3 inn.): At Elk Lake, Celeste Clark had a home run, a double, three RBIs and three runs to lead the Lady Warriors to the Division III win<\/a>.<\/p>\nLydia Howell added a triple, a double and two RBIs, Taylor Traver had two doubles, an RBI and two runs and Piper Keeney tacked on two hits, including a home run, for Elk Lake (2-4, 2-1).<\/p>\n
Ally Barry had a triple and an RBI for the Lady Sabers (1-3, 0-2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUNMORE \u2014 Just another typical Mid Valley-Holy Cross softball game. Hard-fought battle. Leaving it all on the field.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-165097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}